the El Nino weather system have destroyed a great deal of existing transportation infrastructure.
The infrastructure of highways and roads was directly and negatively impacted during the last El Ni±o. This network extends for 75,000 km in Peru. A great majority, 50,000 km, are little more than dirt roads and trails. Only a third of Peruvian highways are either gravel or asphalt. Most of the 10,000 km of asphalt roads are in the Pan-American Highway that runs along the coast. Seen as a group, this network is very inadequate because its extension is limited compared to the size of the country.
(www.unu.edu/env/govern/ElNIno/CountryReports/inside/peru/Social_impacts/ Social_impacts_txt.html)
Additional problems exist for engineers of Peruvian transportation systems in the form of natural disasters. Peru is located in an earthquake-prone area, and has experienced mild volcanic activity, landslides, flooding and tsunamis in past years (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pe.html, 2004). As the nationÆs economy largely depends upon the transportation of marketable products on the h
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